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A.DJDRE88 



SOLDIERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 



GRANITE STATE LINCOLN CLUB 



OF ^^ASHING^TON, D. O. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY LEMUEL TO WER3. 

1864. 



ADDRESS 



SOLDIERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 

FROM THE 

GRANITE STATE LINCOLN CLUB. 

OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 



A meeting of the loyal sons of New Hampshire, held at the 
" Union League rooms" in "Washington, D. C, September 16, 1864, 
proceeded to organize a " Granite State Lincoln Club," by elect- 
ing the following dficers : President, N. G. Ordway ; Vice Presi- 
dents, M. B. Goodwin, Thomas Pearson, Lieut. Col. T. A. Barker, 
and John L. Carlton ; Recording Secretary, John A. Prescott ; 
Corresponding Secretary, H. W. Rowell ; Treasurer, Francis H. 
Morgan ; Ex. Com., Samuel M. Wilcox, J. H. Hobbs, L S. M. 
Gove, J. C. Tasker, Major Wm. H. H. Allen, Major A. H. 
Young, J. T. Pike, M. G. Emery, Z. C. Pvobbins, and Major^ E. 
W. Farr. The object of the club, as set forth at the organiza- 
tion, was to aid in the distribution of loyal documents among the 
soldiers and citizens of the Granite State, and render such other 
assistance to the Union cause as might be found practicable. 

Since its organization the club have distributed nearly thirty 
thousand copies of the ablest and best speeches and arguments 
tending to strengthen the loyalty and patriotism of the people 
yet published. A committee of one gentleman from each county 
in the State was chosen to prepare an address to their brethren 
in the iield. The committee, through tlieir chairman, Hon. E. 
A. Rollins, on Tuesday evening, October 18, reported the follow- 
ing address, which was unanimously adopted; and ten thousand 
copies were ordered to be printed for distribution. 

JOHN A. PRESCOTT, 

Recording Secretary. 



^DDRJESS 



Soldiers : In 6pite of the hot and violent opposition of every 
Deinocriitic member of our Logishiture for two \oi\g years, and 
through the earnest and persistent labor of all the Republicans 
in both its branches, you are at last clothed with the elective 
franchise in the field, and have in your hands another weapon 
with which^o strike at the rebellion. 

You are about to vote for the otiicers and the policy of our na- 
tional administration for the next four years. Ballots for Abra- 
ham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and the Baltimore platform have 
already been sent t<» you. Upon them, for presidential electors, 
you will lind the names of some of the purest and best men of 
our iStuie, who, with our legislators, labored zealously to give 
you the right you are about to exercise. Other ballots will also be 
seJit you, bearing as electors the names of some of the very 
men who have so long and so cruelly toiled to rob you of this 
richly earned and potent privilege. These men now naturally 
anticipate your contempt instead of your favor ; but if you hon- 
estly believe in what seems to us the monstrous doctrines of the 
Chicago platform, and wish them vitalized and illustrated by 
]\[cClellan and Pendleton, you will forgive this strange distrust 
and outrage, and astonish both your friends and your enemies by 
casting your vote f )r joui- despoilers. 

We address you in obedience to instructions from " The Granite 
?tate Lincoln Club" of this cit}^ and our words shall be few and 
trutliful. 

Measures, not men, are important. Principles — platforms wiiich 
embody a&sumed fundamental prece])t8 and purposes — these are 
what political parties are lo be n)ainly measured by, and which 
are represented by tiie two classes of ballots refei-red to. 

li ii» for tliis reason that wu do not ask you to vote for Mr Lin- 
coln l)ecause of his wise statesmanship, his pure morality, his 
warm, tender and generous syiiipailiies, and his tried experienc*-, 
nor for Mr. Johrihion. because of his terribU; sacrifices, his lofty 
pHtriotinn and his rare intellectual ])ower, imr to reject General 
McClellan for his constitutional sluggishness and indecision, his 
long and diligent courtship of l)oth war men, and peace men, for 
j)artizan political purposes, nor for iiis wonderful performances 
as a deflctcroUH juggler, in so standing upon a political platform, 
Iniilt largely of material from Richmond and the Ganadas, that 
rebi.'llioM Kynipalhi/ATs i-uall seem to see liiiii on it, and rebellion 



haters shall seem to see him spurn it. We do not even ask you to 
reject him because of his freezing purposes towards you and his 
rich gratuity to rebels, of which he himself boasts over his own 
hand upon the fifth page of his pulished report. There you will 
find as the last words of his extraordinary letter to the President: 

" In conclusion I would submit that the exigencies of the treas- 
ury may be lessened by making only partial payments to our 
troops while in the enemy's country and by giving the obligations 
of the United States for such supjMes as may be there obtained.'''' 

Your fondly cherished and dependent families among the hills 
aud valleys of our beloved State to be sustained upon partial 
payment for your heroic service. But the obligations of the gov- 
ernment, for supplies taken from malignant traitors, to feed its 
half-paid but faithful soldiers to be immediately recognized and 
discharged ! 

ISTor do we ask you to refuse Mr. Pendleton your votes, because 
in almost every instance, during his eventful congressional career, 
whenever opportunity offered, he denied you his ; whether it was 
for the increase of your numbers, the appropriation of money for 
your support, the more summary punishment of guerillas over- 
taken in their murderous hunt for your lives, or the security of 
homesteads for you upon the confiscated estates of insurrection- 
ary districts. 

These things are personal, and most of them vital, only as they 
reveal the impulses and objects of the great political parties which 
have selected these men as their standard bearers. 

You have carefully read the platforms of these parties. They 
are their creed and their covenant, and by them must they stand 
or fall in the great tribunal of the election. 

The key-note of one is the resolution that we will " do every 
thing in our power to aid the government in quelling by force of 
arms., the rebellion noio waging against its authority y 

That of the other is that : 

" After four years of failure to restore the Union by the ex- 
periment of war, * * * immediate efforts be made for a 
cessatio7i of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of 
all the States or other peaceable means to the end, that at the 
earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored." 

These resolutions sharply reveal the very soul of the questions 
in issue, and, illustrated by those personal to yourselves and your 
families, comprise most that is of weight or value. 

Now we are of those whose hearts have often throbbed at the 
story of your exploits, aud among whom the proud names of your 
great battle fields quicken altnost holier emotions and deeper 
gratitude than do Bunker Hill and Saratoga. With more than 
national pride have we seen that " The Father of Waters again 



6 

goes unvexed to the sea," that territory after territory and State 
after State have been disenthralled and redeemed, and that the 
entire coast rejoices again under the ample iblds of our national 
ensign. We have long believed that the naval and military 
power of the Government can alone scatter rebels in arms ; and 
wo now believe that, after a few more months of exposure and 
toil, our battle scarred heroes will come back to us laden with the 
riciies of unbounded triumphs and the glories of a saved and un- 
divided nationality. Kven now the rebellion, bleeding at every 
})()re, reels and totters to its overthrow. Already does Jefferson 
Davis, in his recent lamentations at Macon, tell the people of 
Georgia, " You have not many men hetioeen eighteen and forty -five 
Uft. * * * It is not proper forme to speak of the number 
of men in the field ; but, this I will say, that two-thirds of our 
men are absent, some sick, some wounded, hut most of them ab- 
sent without leave,'"' that no troops can be sent from Lee to Hood, 
because " in Virginia the disparity in numbers is as great as it is 
in Georgia." Old Virginia, that never tired before, is tired and 
almost exhausted now. Already are our victorious legions 
threading every avenue of the confederacy, and crushing with 
terrible and inevitable power the despairing foe in his last strong- 
holds. We can almost see the gathering death-damp, and hear 
his wail of dissolution and remorse. The exultation and thanksgiv- 
ing of a nation saved — the gratitude and ascriptions of praise 
from the ages to come are already the reward of our gallant 
defenders, when lo ! a sepulchral voice from Chicago, " Four 
years of failure" — "immediate cessation of hostilities — " "Con- 
vention of all the States or other peaceable means," all which in 
simple English is this: If the war goes on much longer, the re- 
bellion will l)e crushed, peace men will be infamous, in greater 
or less degree, according to their criminality. Soldiers will be 
heroes. These vexed qnestions must be transferred, therefore, 
from the ar))itrament of arms to the arbitrament of the hustings. 
Soldiers must make way for politicians. It is they who must 
wear the garlands of victory. Grant and Sherman, and Farragut, 
and Hooker, and Sheridan must pale before the more effulgent 
lights of Pundletcm and Ben. Wood, August Behnont, Lazarus 
Powell, and Vallandigham. Our conquering armies must come 
back from the grave of treason they are digging, and, leaving 
tliL'ir lanuMiIrd deail, fallen in battle, to sleep in foreign soil, 
" unhonorc'-fl and luihung," with trailing banners and unwilling 
stepn, ihey must retire to the privacy of seclusion and the ])ro- 
mised "sympathy" and charity of their cold hearted Chicago 
defamers, while tluise same political tricksters (^f the North and 
the red handed rebel.s of the South congratnlate each other over 
the " ce.^sation of h(»stilities," "the ])euceal)le solution of all onr 
difliciiltieb," a disgraced soldiery, and a divided country. 

From hUih a spectacle and hu( h degradation mav the God of 



our Fathers deliver us. We might survive it, but our honor will 
be gone, our boasted institutions shipwrecked, and our proud old 
national ensign tarnished and lustreless. History will be ashamed 
of us, and our children lament the weakness and wickedness of 
those they must call their fathers. 

These little ballots, then, are freighted heavily with destiny. 
There is more upon them than idle words. Upon those for Abra- 
ham Lincoln are faith in our Army, peace, civilization, freedom, 
and immortality. There are tears for the departed hero, love 
and sustenance for his bereaved ones, and profoundest honor for 
those who still bear their breasts to the storm. Upon those for 
George B. McClellan are compromise, political chicanery, pity 
for poor deluded soldiers, nationalized slavery and national dis- 
grace. There are the names of Pendleton, Yallandigham, Gar- 
ret Davis, and the truly loyal can almost read Eobert E. Lee amd 
Jefferson Davis. 

Which will you cast ? 

When the news from the Chicago Convention reached the 
confederacy early in September, you heard triumphant cheers all 
through the rebel lines. O let them not jeer at and mock you 
in November. 

When this accursed rebellion broke out with all its horrors, one 
fourth of our little army was in distant Texas, and the rebel 
Twiggs surrendered it to the foe. But to its everlasting honor 
and the honor of our army everywhere, it is written that though 
imprisoned for fourteen months and threatened with starvation, 
there was not a single private soldier who forgot his duty and 
turned his back upon his country. 

Soldiers ! you stand in the Thermopylae of the ages. A few more 
sharp, quick, vigorous blows, with all the weapons God and nature 
have put into your hands, and your names shall be more imperish- 
able than brass or marble. 

It is more glorious to save a nation than to found one. 

. Washington, D. C, October 18, 1862. 

E. A. ROLLINS, 
L. D. MASON, 

D. W. PEABODY, 
THOMAS PEARSON, 
MYKON L. STORY, 
A. J. FOGG. 

J. T. PIKE. 
S. S. BEAN, 

E. A. KEMP, 

E. H. HILDKETH, 

Committee. 



illiilwS), °'' CONGRESS 



'■iiiiiiiiii]iii'jiii(iiii]i(iiiiiiii 

012 028 004 1 'i| 

(GRANITE STATE LINCOLN CLUB. 

(Rooms south wing of the Capitol, Washington, D. C.) 



Hon. N. G. ORDWAY President. 



VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
M. B. Goodwin, Esq., 
Hon. T. Pearson, 

John A. Prescott, Esq., Recording Secretary; Col. H. W. Rowell, 
Corresj^onding Secretary / F. H. Morgan, Esq., Treasurer. 



J, L. Oaklton, Esq., 
A. B.F. V. 



EXECUTIVE AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE. 



S. M. Wilcox, Esq., 
J. H. Hobbs, " 
I. S. M. Gove, " 
J. C. Tasker, " 
M. G. Emoiy, " 



Major W. H. H. AUen, 
" A. H. Young, 
" E. W. Farr, 

Z. C. Bobbins, Esq., 

J. T. Pike, 



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